Like the Provisional IRA before it, the CIRA sees itself as the direct continuation of the original Irish Republican Army and styles itself as simply "the Irish Republican Army" in English or Óglaigh na hÉireann (Volunteers of Ireland) in Irish. It sees itself as the national army of an Irish Republiccovering the whole of Ireland. The security forces initially referred to it as the "Irish National Republican Army" (INRA).

To date, it has been responsible for the death of one PSNI officer.[3] However, the CIRA is not as big and has not been as active as the Real IRA and there have been a number of splits within the organisation since the mid-2000s.

The Continuity IRA has its origins in a split in the Provisional IRA. In September 1986, the Provisional IRA held a meeting of its General Army Convention (GAC), the organisation's supreme decision-making body. It was the first GAC in 16 years. The meeting, which like all such meetings was secret, was convened to discuss among other resolutions, the articles of the Provisional IRA constitution which dealt with abstentionism, specifically its opposition to the taking of seats in Dáil Éireann (the parliament of the Republic of Ireland).[4] The GAC passed motions (by the necessary two-thirds majority) allowing members of the Provisional IRA to discuss and debate the taking of parliamentary seats, and the removal of the ban on members of the organisation from supporting any successful republican candidate who took their seat in Dáil Éireann.[5][6]

The Provisional IRA convention delegates opposed to the change in the constitution claimed that the convention was gerrymandered "by the creation of new IRA organisational structures for the convention, including the combinations of Sligo-Roscommon-Longford and Wicklow-Wexford-Waterford."[7] The only IRA body that supported this viewpoint was the outgoing IRA Executive. Those members of the outgoing Executive who opposed the change comprised a quorum. They met, dismissed those in favour of the change, and set up a new Executive. They contacted Tom Maguire, who had supported the Provisionals against the Official IRA (see Irish republican legitimatism), and asked him for support. Maguire had also been contacted by supporters of Gerry Adams, then and now president ofSinn Féin, and a supporter of the change in the Provisional IRA constitution.

Maguire rejected Adams' supporters, supported the IRA Executive members opposed to the change, and named the new organisers the Continuity Army Council.[8] In a 1986 statement, he rejected "the legitimacy of an Army Council styling itself the Council of the Irish Republican Army which lends support to any person or organisation styling itself as Sinn Féin and prepared to enter the partition parliament of Leinster House." In 1987, Maguire described the "Continuity Executive" as the "lawful Executive of the Irish Republican Army."[9]

Although much smaller than the Real IRA, the Continuity IRA is regarded by British intelligence as "Dangerous and Capable of more violent acts" the Continuity IRA has been behind a number of attacks including the shooting dead of PSNI Constable Stephen Carroll who was shot dead on 9 March 2009 as he responded to a 999 call in Craigavon. He was the first Police Officer to be killed since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement. He was killed 2 days after the Real IRA shooting of 2 British soldiers outside Massereene Barracks in Antrim. In a press interview with Republican Sinn Féin regarded by some to be the political wing of the Continuity IRA, number of days later. Republican Sinn Féin member Paddy Walsh a claimed they were 'acts of war'.

The Continuity IRA also was responsible for shooting dead two of it members who left the organisation and attempted to create their own organisation. Upon leaving the CIRA, they took a number of guns with them. In 2013 former CIRA member Kieran McManus in West Belfast was shot dead by the CIRA. The Continuity IRA is believed to be by Gardaí to have been involved in a number of gangland killings in the Dublin and Limerick. Recent internal feuds and splits have seen Organisations such as the RCIRA (Real Continuity IRA) being formed in the Limerick area and organisations such as Óglaigh na hÉireann (Which ceased operating around 2009, not be confused with the another more active group called Óglaigh na hÉireann) and Saoirse na hÉireann a group which also ceased around that time. A Republican Sinn Féin member even remarked that splits aren't uncommon in the Continuity IRA as some individuals think they should be in a leading position of the group.

In 2013 the Continuity IRA's 'South Down Brigade' threatened a traveler family in Newry and it published a statement in the local newspaper. There was negotiations with community representatives and the CIRA announced the threat was lifted. It was believed the threat was issued after a traveler feud which resulted in a pipe bomb attack in Bessbrook, near Newry. The Continuity IRA is believed to be mainly strong in the Fermanagh - North Armagh area (Craigavon, Armagh and Lurgan). It is believed to be behind a number of attacks such as pipe bombings, rocket attacks, gun attacks and the PSNI claimed it orchestrated riots a number of times to lure Police Officers into area's such as Kilwilkie in Lurgan and Drumbeg in Craigavon in order to attack them. It also claimed the group orchestrated a riot during a security alert in Lurgan. The alert turned out to be a hoax.[10]

Thus, similar to the claim put forward by the Provisional IRA after its split from the Official IRA in 1969, the Continuity IRA claims to be the legitimate continuation of the 'Irish Republican Army' or Óglaigh na hÉireann.[11] This argument is based on the view that the surviving anti-Treaty members of the Second Dáil delegated their "authority" to the IRA Army Council in 1938. As further justification for this claim, Tom Maguire, one of those anti-Treaty members of the Second Dáil, issued a statement in favour of the Continuity IRA, just as he had done in 1969 in favour of the Provisionals. J. Bowyer Bell, in his The Irish Troubles, describes Maguire's opinion in 1986, "abstentionism was a basic tenet of republicanism, a moral issue of principle. Abstentionism gave the movement legitimacy, the right to wage war, to speak for a Republic all but established in the hearts of the people".[12] Maguire's stature was such that a delegation from Gerry Adams sought his support in 1986, but was rejected.[13]

These changes within the military wing of the Republican Movement were accompanied by changes in the political wing and at the 1986 Sinn Féin Ard Fheis (party conference), which followed the IRA Convention, the party's policy of abstentionism, which forbade Sinn Féin elected representatives from taking seats in the Oireachtas, the parliament of Ireland, was dropped. On 2 November, the 628 delegates present cast their votes, the result being 429 to 161. The traditionalists, having lost at both conventions, walked out of the Mansion House, met that evening at the West County Hotel, and reformed as Republican Sinn Féin(RSF).[14]

According to a report in the Cork Examiner, the Continuity IRA's first chief of staff wasDáithí Ó Conaill,[15] who also served as the first chairman of RSF from 1986 to 1987. The Continuity IRA and RSF perceive themselves as forming a "true" Republican Movement.[16]

The CIRA is an illegal organisation under UK (section 11(1) of the Terrorism Act 2000) and Irish law due to the use of 'IRA' in the group's name in a situation analogous to that of theReal Irish Republican Army (RIRA).[19][20] Membership of the organisation is punishable by a sentence of up to ten years imprisonment under UK law.[21] On 13 July 2004, the US government designated the CIRA as a 'Foreign Terrorist Organization' (FTO).[22] This made it illegal for Americans to provide material support to the CIRA, requires US financial institutions to block the group's assets and denies alleged CIRA members visas into the US.[23]

The US government suspects the Continuity IRA of having received funds and arms from supporters in the United States. Security sources in Ireland have expressed the suspicion that, in co-operation with the RIRA, the Continuity IRA may have acquired arms and material from the Balkans. They also suspect that the Continuity IRA arsenal contains some weapons that were taken from Provisional IRA arms dumps, including a few dozen rifles, machine guns, and pistols; a small amount of the explosive Semtex; and a few dozen detonators.[24]

Like the Real IRA, the Continuity IRA still retains on to some weapons some of its members stole from Provisional IRA dumps after they defected. However it was believed in 1999 and 2000 that members of the Continuity IRA and members of the Real IRA traveled a number of times to Croatia in the former Yugoslavia to purchase some arms with a contact they had established. It was widely believed that some of those arms including Yugoslavian Plastic Explosives such as TM-500, Yugoslavian M70AB1's and M70AB2's (Yugoslavian variants of the AK47 and AKM rifles), Czech Vz 26's sub machine guns, RPG 18 rocket launchers and a quantity of ammunition managed to be smuggled safely to Ireland.

The Gardaí later discovered some of this equipment belong mainly to the Real IRA in bunkers and training camps in County Meath. Real IRA member Alan Ryan,[25] aged 19, was arrested at an underground training camp in County Meath. Ryan would later rise to become a prominent member of the Real IRA in Dublin only to be killed in a violent feud with Dublin Criminals in 2012. In 2000 Croatian police stopped a truck carrying a consignment of arms believed to be destined for the Real IRA and the Continuity IRA. The footage featured in a BBC Spotlight Documentary in 2003 about Dissident Republicans. It is believed that the Continuity IRA still holds on to some of the arms that managed to get through.

Much of its weaponry is believed to be mostly of Provisional IRA origin such as the Romanian AKM rifles the Provisional IRA managed to receive from Libya. Many of these weapons can be frequently seen in Real IRA and Continuity IRA propaganda videos or photographs taken by journalists who managed to interview members of the Continuity IRA and are found usually when arms are uncovered by British or Irish security forces.[10]

Initially, the Continuity IRA did not reveal its existence, either in the form of press statements or paramilitary activity. Although the Garda Síochána had suspicions that the organisation existed, they were unsure of its name, labelling it the "Irish National Republican Army".[26] On 21 January 1994, on the 75th anniversary of the First Dáil Éireann, Continuity IRA volunteers offered a "final salute" to Tom Maguire by firing over his grave, and a public statement and a photo were published in Saoirse Irish Freedom.[27]

It was only after the Provisional IRA declared a ceasefire in 1994 that the Continuity IRA became active, announcing its intention to continue the campaign against British rule. The CIRA continues to oppose the Good Friday Agreement and, unlike the Provisional IRA (and the Real IRA in 1998), the CIRA has not announced a ceasefire or agreed to participate in weapons decommissioning—nor is there any evidence that it will. In the 18th Independent Monitoring Commission's report, the RIRA, the CIRA and the Irish National Liberation Army(INLA) were deemed a potential future threat. The CIRA was labelled "active, dangerous and committed and... capable of a greater level of violent and other crime". Like the RIRA and Óglaigh na hÉireann, it too sought funds for expansion. It is also known to have worked with the INLA.[28]

The CIRA has been involved in a number of bombing and shooting incidents. Targets of the CIRA have included the British military, the Northern Ireland police service (Royal Ulster Constabulary, Police Service of Northern Ireland) and Ulster loyalistparamilitaries. Since the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 the CIRA along with other paramilitaries apposing the ceasefire, have been involved with a countless number of punishment shootings and beatings. By 2005 the CIRA was believed to be an established presence on the island of Great Britain with the capability of launching attacks.[29] A bomb defused in Dublin in December 2005 was believed to have been the work of the CIRA.[30] In February 2006, the Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC) blamed the CIRA for planting four bombs in Northern Ireland during the final quarter of 2005, as well as several hoax bomb warnings.[31] The IMC also blamed the CIRA for the killings of two former CIRA members in Belfast, who had stolen CIRA weapons and established a rival organisation. [32]

The CIRA continued to be active in both planning and undertaking attacks on the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI). The IMC said they tried to create troubles to lure police forth, while they have also taken to stoning and using petrol bombs. In addition, other assaults, robbery, tiger kidnapping, extortion, fuel laundering and smuggling were undertaken by the group. The CIRA also actively took part in recruiting and training members, including disgruntled former Provisional IRA members. As a result of this continued activity the IMC said the group remained "a very serious threat".[33]

On 10 March 2009 the CIRA claimed responsibility for the fatal shooting of a PSNI officer inCraigavon, County Armagh—the first police fatality in Northern Ireland since 1998. The officer was fatally shot by a sniper as he and a colleague investigated "suspicious activity" at a house nearby when a window was smashed by youths causing the occupant to phone the police. The PSNI officers responded to the emergency call, giving a CIRA sniper the chance to shoot and kill officer Stephen Carroll.[34][35]

In 2005, several members of the CIRA, who were serving prison sentences in Portlaoise Prison for paramilitary activity, left the organisation. Some transferred to the INLA landing of the prison, but the majority of those who left are now independent and on E4 landing. The remaining CIRA prisoners have moved to D Wing. Supporters of the Continuity IRA leadership claim that this resulted from an internal disagreement, which although brought to a conclusion, was followed by some people leaving the organisation anyway. Supporters of the disaffected members established the Concerned Group for Republican Prisoners in their support. Most of those who had left went back to the CIRA, or dissociated themselves from the CGRP. The group is now defunct.

In February 2006, the Independent Monitoring Commission claimed in a report on paramilitary activity that two groups, styling themselves as "Óglaigh na hÉireann" and "Saoirse na hÉireann", had been formed after a split in the Continuity IRA.[36] The Óglaigh na hÉireann group was responsible for a number of pipe bomb attacks on the PSNI, bomb hoaxes, and robberies. The Saoirse na hÉireann group was responsible for a number of bomb hoaxes.[36] The groups had apparently ceased operations by early 2009.[37]

In July 2010, members of a "militant Northern-based faction within the CIRA" led by a well known member from south Derry claimed to have overthrown the leadership of the organisation. They also claimed that an Army Convention representing "95 per cent of volunteers" had unanimously elected a new 12-member Army Executive, which in turn appointed a new seven-member Army Council. The moves came as a result of dissatisfication with the southern-based leadership and the apparent winding-down of military operations. A senior source from Republican Sinn Féin said: "We would see them [the purported new leadership] as just another splinter group that has broken away."[38] In June 2011, Liam Kenny, a member of this Limerick based breakaway Continuity IRA faction, was allegedly murdered by drug dealers at his home in Clondalkin, West Dublin.[39]On 28 November 2011 an innocent man was mistakenly shot dead in retaliation for the murder of Liam Kenny. (a member of the same breakaway Continuity IRA faction based in and lead from Limerick) Rose Lynch from Limerick pleaded guilty to this murder at the Special Criminal Court and was sentenced to life imprisonment.[40]

In July 2012 this faction announced it had a new leadership after expelling members who had been working against the organisation.[41]

Jump up^"Essentially since the spring of 1972, the crucial player in the armed struggle has been the Provisional IRA—now the IRA. (Authors Italics) J. Bowyer Bell, IRA: Tactics & Targets, Poolbeg, First Published 1990, Reprinted 1993, This Edition 1998, Dublin, ISBN 1-85371-603-0.